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Cooking Your Notes

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When your paper-based notebook is full to the brim with your notes and recollections, what to you do? Have you considered microwaving the notebook?

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As somebody who regularly needs to jot down notes at various events and launches of new or enhanced products whether of the software or hardware variety, I am always on the look out for ways of making the process easier. Several years ago I came across the Livescribe system, with its various Pulse and Echo products, which allowed for notes to be written and simultaneously recorded within the pen device. However the company made a number of decisions regarding the functionality of the pen which, in my opinion, degraded the device’s performance and usefulness to yours truly. As a result I abandoned the Livescribe system.

Offering to fill the gap left by the Livescribe product is a solution developed by Joe Lanay and Jake Epstein. This is the Rocketbook product line of offerings which offered an alternative solution towards assisting my note taking.

Following my look at the Rocketbook Everlast notebook, which provides a pen and paper experience with the ability to be able to reuse the paper element several times over, now it is the turn of the company’s RocketbookWave product. This offering combines Cloud-based storage service facilities with the ability to reuse its notebook pages as a recyclable measure.

The RocketbookWave product is available in either Standard or Executive size versions. In the case of the former, the Standard size’s dimensions are 216 x 241 mm while the smaller Executive model has dimensions of 152 x 226 mm. Both versions contain 80 pages of acid-free, fine-grain paper featuring a dot grid which my aging eyes were unable to detect. Accompanying the actual notebook is a Pilot FriXion pen. Unlike the push button style pen supplied with the Rocketbook Everlast product, the pen forming part of the Wave offering is of the removable cap type and has a pocket attachment clip.

As with the recently reviewed Rocketbook Everlast product, the Wave version of the notebook works in conjunction with the Rocketbook app to scan pages and transmit the content to user-defined destinations made up of email addresses, supported Cloud storage services, such as Google Drive, Dropbox and Evernote, plus specific folders as designated by the user.

With this product, Rocketbook has opted to move away from the simple method of wipe clean using a damp towelling cloth to instigate the reuse process. Now a far more complicated and less convenient approach is required to clear pages for reuse. For a start you need access to a microwave oven with a turntable large enough to accommodate the Rocketbook notebook. A microwave oven is not the kind of equipment you would normally expect to be available when you are out and about, so restricting the cleaning process to your home base.

The actual process involves the use of a mug of water to be placed in the oven along with the RocketbookWave notebook. Regular checking to see whether an icon has disappeared is required. Once the icon disappeared then the process is complete. Later the icon will reappear allowing for another cleaning session. Multiple pages and both sides of each page are cleared by the microwave process. While the process does achieve its aim, I found it rather fiddly and it would not qualify as user-friendly/

Rocketbook claims that the pages can be cleared and reused up to five times but I have yet to test this particular feature. There is also a suggestion that the notebook should be allowed to cool for three minutes or so to help dissipate the heat generated by the microwave oven. My sensitive fingers certainly supported this suggestion.

As I had both versions (Everlast and Wave) in my possession, I decided to test how the Wave offering would respond to the damp cloth method of note removal. It did partly but in the process the paper began to disintegrate. So that idea bit the dust. I did, however, discover that the scan and capture routine used by the Rocketbook app needed to identify a QR code in the lower left corner of the page before it would proceed.

If I had to make a choice between the Everlast and Wave products with regards to ease-of-use then the winner would be the Everlast version. The Executive version of the product is priced at £25.99 while the Standard product costs a little more at £28.99.

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